Countdown to Maryland Primary: Heather Mizeur

Editor’s Note: This is the first in a series of profiles on the candidates running for Maryland governor in 2014. Click here to read all the profiles.

Democrat Heather Mizeur

Heather Mizeur, 41, grew up in Blue Mound, a farming community in central Illinois. She says at the age of nine that she learned the value of a dollar when her father, a United Automobile worker, was on strike for several weeks. Mizeur walked the picket line with her dad as her family struggled to get by on $45-per-week strike pay.

Del. Mizeur says she is proud of legislation she helped pass that included healthcare reform, environmental protections and marriage equality.

She says as governor, she would be focused on what she calls the “Cause of a Lifetime” – eliminating the income inequality gap. Mizeur plans to turn the minimum wage into a living wage, and wants to make life easier for the middle class by passing a tax cut. She says the tax cut would be passed by bringing back the millionaire’s tax.

Mizeur is the only candidate to propose funding for pre-kindergarten expansion by taxing marijuana sales. She says the war on drugs is a failure, and has been enforced with racial bias. Taxes can help generate $160 million in revenue for early childhood initiatives, according to Mizeur.